Athenaeum
- a fortress in Athamania, Liv. 38, 1; 39, 25.
- 1. tempel v.d. godin Athene in Athene, waarin dichters en geleerden hun werken voordroegen;
- 2. hogeschool in Rome, gesticht door keizer Hadrianus om wetenschappelijke vorming te bevorderen.
ATHENAEUM(ἀθήναιον), a school (ludus) founded by the Emperor Hadrian at Rome, for the promotion of literary and scientific studies (ingenuarum artium), and called Athenaeum from the town of Athens, which was still regarded as the seat of intellectual refinement. The Athenaeum was situated on the Capitoline hill. It was a kind of university; and a staff of professors, for the various branches of study, was regularly engaged. Under Theodosius II., for example, there were three orators, ten grammarians, five sophists, one philosopher, two lawyers or jurisconsults. Besides the instruction given by these magistri; poets, orators, and critics were accustomed to recite their compositions there, and these prelections were sometimes honoured with the presence of the emperors themselves. There were other places where such recitations were made, as the Library of Trajan [BIBLIOTHECA]; sometimes also a room was hired, and made into an auditorium, seats erected, &c. The Athenaeum seems to have continued in high repute till the fifth century. Little is known of the details of study or discipline in the Athenaeum, but in the constitution of the year 370 there are some regulations respecting students in Rome, from which it would appear that it must have been a very extensive and important institution. And this is confirmed by other statements contained in some of the Fathers and other ancient authors, from which we learn that young men from all parts, after finishing their usual school and college studies in their own town or province, used to resort to Rome as a sort of higher university, for the purpose of completing their education. (Aur. Vict. Caes. 14; Dio Cass.; Capitolin. Pertin. 11, Gordian. Sen. 3; Lamprid. Alex. Sever. 35; Cod. Theod. 14, tit. 9, s. 1.)
[A.A]ATHENAEUM(Ἀθηναῖον).
1.A fortress in the S. of Arcadia, and in the territory of Megalopolis, is described by Plutarch as a position in advance of the Lacedaemonian frontier (ἐμβολὴ τῆς Λακωνικῆς), and near Belemina. It was fortified by Cleomenes in B.C. 224, and was frequently taken and retaken in the wars between the Achaean League and the Spartans. Leake supposes that it occupied the summit of Mount Tzimbarú, on which there are some remains of an Hellenic fortress. In that case it must have been a different place from the Athenaeum mentioned by Pausanias on the road from Megalopolis to Asea, and 20 stadia from the latter. (Plut. Cleom. 4; Plb. 2.46, 54, 4.37, 60, 81; Paus. 8.44. § § 2, 3; Leake, Peloponnesiaca, p. 248.)
2.A fortress in Athamania in Epeirus, described by Livy as finibus Macedoniae subjectum,and apparently near Gomphi. Leake places it on a height, a little above the deserted village of Apáno Porta, or Porta Panaghía. (Liv. 28.1, 39.25; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iv. pp. 212, 525.)
(Ἀθήναιον). The first public educational institution at Rome, built by Hadrian about A.D. 135. The building was in the form of a theatre, and brilliantly fitted up. There rhetoricians and poets held their recitations, and salaried professors gave their lectures in the various branches of general liberal education—philosophy and rhetoric, as well as grammar and jurisprudence. This continued until at least the fifth century a. d.
- Paus. 8.44.2